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Secret Service agents on Thursday arrested an Edinburg man who said he may have around 1,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material on his cellphone.
The agents, who are assigned to the Homeland Security Investigations-led Rio Grande Valley Child Exploitation Investigations Task Force, began investigating after receiving referrals generated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a Verizon phone number being used to upload child sexual abuse material to the internet, according to a criminal complaint.
Federal authorities allege that number belongs to Cristian Garza, who was born in 2001.
“The information received also identified approximately twenty images and video files that are classified as child pornography,” the complaint stated.
On Thursday, task force special agents contacted and interviewed Garza at his Edinburg residence and asked him to come to the Secret Service Resident Field Office in McAllen for an interview.
During that interview, the complaint said Garza admitted that he knew what child pornography is and that it is illegal. He consented to letting agents look at his cellphone, which is where they saw “that he had several online applications and a hidden folder on his photos app which contained images and videos depicting prepubescent children engaged in sex acts with adults and other children.”
Garza admitting to downloading and storing the child sexual abuse material from approximately August 2019 through Thursday, according to the complaint.
“Garza further stated that there may be about 1,000 videos and/or images of child pornography on his cellular device that he has downloaded and collected from individuals and applications online,” the complaint stated.
Garza was scheduled to make a first appearance Friday morning in McAllen federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker.
